[Known places of senatorial meetings]

The Senate could meet at any nominated place when summoned to convene. They preferred significant locations.

[Declaration of war]

Caligula threatened to make his horse Incitatus a senator on the grounds that he though they were a bunch of useless timewasters and even his horse could do a better job. Bear in mind however that after he was assassinated the magistrates and urban cohorts seized power in Rome, for a day or two until the Praetorians got their way and had Claudius installed as Princeps. Younger Imperators had a habit of being less respectful toward the Senate, but those who cooperated (Antoninus Pius is a good example) tended to live longer. But no matter what level of influence a Roman ruler possessed, he still needed acceptance from the Senate as the traditional source of authority. No such thing as 'emperor', and the privileges needed to rule Rome were awarded by Senators. not by making grandiose declarations.

Remember that the only office in Roman culture that conferred the right to command citizens was Dictator, abolished  by Marc Antony and refused by Augustus who set the template for future leaders. Diocletian declared his word was law, thus instituting the Dominate period in which ignoring the Imperator made you a criminal instead of a free man.

[Declaration of war]

The Senate had no authority to declare war at their own initiative, that decision was a privilege assigned to the Comitia Centuriata, one of the popular voting assemblies, and a ritual of throwing a spear across the border would follow a vote in favour of war. However, one example of when they did was Octavian using the priviliges he held to tell the Senate to do so against Cleopatra of Egypt.

So right there you have an encapsulation of the change from democratic confirmation of aggression to military directive. As Princeps Senatus, Augustus as First Senator had the ability to suggest a war should be undertaken pretty much when he wanted, and given his overwhelming presence on the Roman political scene, he was likely to be listened to. He also had the right to intervene where-ever he wanted in defence of Rome's security, which given their policy of offence being the best defence, and holding the highest right to command (imperium maia), he could assume command of Rome's military whenever he wanted. Since the Comitia Centuriata were essentially by-passed, that requirement lapsed into history, which the SEnate were perfectly happy about.

Later Imperators - the name meant 'Victorious General', not 'emperor, though did not confer any official power whatsoever) were emulating Caesar and Augustus hence followed similar prerogatives.

[Growing a Roman garden]

Romans would have had a veritable swarm of slaves caring over that garden.....

[Roman Dress Codes Enforcement]

Not quite. It was Macro who got Sejanus to enter the Temple of Apollo where the Senate were meeting, then ordered the Praetorians back to barracks and had the Vigiles station themselves around the temple in case of public disorder - more or less an ordinary task for them. Sejanus was actually taken into custody by praetors and tribunes. The soldiery were in fact rather upset they hadn't been trusted.

[Roman Dress Codes Enforcement]

So were the urban guards a sort of police force? Who was in charge of them?

Sorry MagnificentBeast, I missed this one. The cohortes urbanae were formed from a few cohorts of the Praetorians, both to keep the Praetorians in order and to operate as a form of police force to help keep the streets safe. They were led by their own Urban Prefect. Much less contentious than Praetorians, the only time I remember them getting a mention was when magistrates used them to seize power in Rome after the assassination of Caligula. That lasted a day or two until the Praetorians got their own way and had Claudius made Princeps.

[English as essentially Viking in deep structure]

Britons or British please. 'Brits' is considered mildly offensive.

[What Song Are You Listening to Now?]

You might not have heard of these guys from Baltimore, the band leader passed away in 2013.  Prog rock and a good listen.

 

[Is there any mention of proto-Russians in the Iliad by Homer? :)]

Greeks and Trojans. No slavic involvement, sorry.

[Roman gladiator glass]

Heck, those are stunning

[Old Roman Road Uncovered]

Daniel Wood

Thu, 11 August 2022 at 3:29 pm

 

 

 

Wanborough Road will stay shut until November

The full closure of a road serving one of Swindon's major villages has been extended a further two months.

Wanborough Road - which connects Covingham and Wanborough - was closed to vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians on June 6 and was expected to reopen on September 9.

Contractor Conlon Ltd has been digging up the busy route as part of the Redlands Grove housing development, but the discovery of an ancient Roman road directly underneath it has caused problems.

Swindon Borough Council issued an update on Facebook, even though the local authority is not behind this particular project.

 

Swindon Advertiser: The roman tracks found under Wanborough Road

The roman tracks found under Wanborough Road

The post said: "As you can see from the pictures, Conlon has found significant Roman remains, such as an extended Roman trackway, on various areas of the site. Archaeologists are currently working with the contractor to document the extent of the finds.

"This means that Conlon is now looking to reopen the road in early November, but this may be extended depending on what the archaeologists find."

This means that Wanborough residents and people using businesses - including many pubs - in the village will have to go an extra two months without being able to use one of the major roads in or out of the village.

The council added: "Conlon and other contractors have a legal right to do this work and we appreciate residents are facing disruption as it happens.

"We’d like to remind people that businesses in the area are still open, and a signed diversion is in place."

 

Swindon Advertiser: Wanborough residents have had to travel the long way round to Poplar's Nursery

Wanborough residents have had to travel the long way round to Poplar's Nursery

The work includes the installation of new highway drainage, street lights and a footpath for the Redlands Grove development which will form part of the New Eastern Villages.

This news comes after the revelation that the New Eastern Villages project, which will bring 8,000 new homes to the east of the A419 is already £12m over budget due to delays in the council's road infrastructure work to get the area ready for the new homes.

A report to Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet says officers predicted a £12.278m overspend on the programme’s £74m budget, taking the current projected expenditure to £87m.

Of that, £1.4m is overspending from Nythe Road junction and Piccadilly roundabout, £550,000 from Gablecross and £10.3m from the new Southern Connector Road which will go from South Marston to the Commonhead Roundabout.

[No self portraits among cave paintings?]

The closest to a self portrait was the habit of blowing paint around a hand pressed against the cave wall, a sort of 'I was here' motif.

[Smells of Rome]

The Romans complained about the noise of urban life, not the smell of it.

[Africa As Suggested For Me]

Probably, except for reasons I can't go into right now, public awareness is a better plan.

[Africa As Suggested For Me]

The heat wave in the UK goes on and I certainly felt it in the early morning sunshine as I visited the local park returning from the shops. One of the resident swans was busy trying to stay cool pulling feathers out. The lake is covered with duckweed, and the birds are almost static because swimming around through that green gunge is clearly harder. We're even hotter than parts of Africa.

Ah yes, Africa. Can I just point out that before I discuss that part of the world, I'm not racist, despite some accusations from some websites.  Some of my friends and the people I deal with every day have african ethnicity. Skin colour is irrelevant.

But Africa? Well I bring this up because of my recent experience on Facebook. Somebody is suggesting all sorts of pro-african pages. In theory that wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Pointing out that a single negro in America was actually an inventor is suprising given American history, but quite illuminating. That is at least positive. But an American page claiming that Native Americans are actually black? Well, no, they're more closely related to Asians. Oh I see. Everybody comes from Africa.

That was bad enough but an important insight to African culture comes not from America, whose population seem hell bent on claiming they're from somewhere else, but from the Africans themselves and it involves religion. I'm not a Christian. I rejected Christianity many years ago because the whole exercise is nothing but manipulation of congregations and always had been. Christianity Inc was of course a child of the ruthlessly mercantile Roman Empire.

So I received a page from some African who wanted someone to be the first Christian billionaire and all you had to do was pray to Jesus. Excuse me? Since when did Jesus run a lottery? The same guy who overturned the tables of the moneylenders? Worldly wealth wasn't part of the deal. Christianity was always about putting up with the suffering in life because you reserve a place in paradise, not in Heaven, but eternal life on Earth after the Resurrection. The idea of ending up in Heaven is more of a medieval concept.

Then today I got an African Facebook page showing a wallet full of cash lying on the ground. Wow! Jesus sends a gift! It's the same problem. Worldly wealth and hoping Jesus will offer a reward for faithful observance. That wallet was of course placed there for the photo. But then if the photo had shown a real circumstance, the wallet wasn't there because of supernatural intervention, it was dropped by someone. The money belongs to someone else. Morally, taking the money knowing full well it was someone else's is theft. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that something mentioned in the Commandments?

It is now politically correct to blame imperialist European countries for the failures of modern Africa. No, that's nonsense. It's the Africans themselves, who have this corrupt tribal system underlying their democratic, socialist, or militaristic governments. Their take on Christianity is exploitative, not moral, spiritual, or philosophical.  It stinks. 

[Freeing infames]

Yes there was. Not least Messalina, the third wife of Claudius. She is reputed to have challenged a leading prostitute to see who could have sex with the most men in one night, and apparently she won.

[Freeing infames]

Not at all. Take gladiators for instance. Professional lanistas weren't the only owners, military officers used them as bodyguards and trainers, even private citizens sometimes had a troupe among their possessions for rent. Cicero, in one of his letters, praises his friend Atticus for the splendid troupe he owns. But then I suppose the association with virile masculinity more than compensated for official infamy. 

Prostitutes might be a little different. Wealthy men could of course have any slave they wanted on demand. Wives would suffer of course, that was not the correct behaviour of a Roman matron. I do note however that some of the urban villas in Pompeii have alcoves in the back wall which they could rent to prostitutes quietly. Let's not speak about that eh?

[Freeing infames]

They adopt the name, and likely remain a client of him. Infamy is only attached to the individual, and if raised to a situation that doesn't impose infamy, they are nonetheless forever stained with having been so, though this has much less restriction than actual infamy. The patron/former owner is not affected.

[Roman villa in Scarborough reburied]

it's not unusual for archeology. In Britain finds like mosaics are often reburied partly because they're on productive farm land, partly because there's little chance of alternative protection, partly because no-one has the money to do anything else. Evidence and positions are painstakingly recorded and the field goes back into agriculture.

[What Song Are You Listening to Now?]

Two reasons for that. One is a quality pickup, the other is a lot of compression in the signal chain.

[What Song Are You Listening to Now?]

It's a custom Squier Strat. One of the Indonesian made models I upgraded with a hot humbucker. Lovely neck, I really get on with it.

[What Song Are You Listening to Now?]

I've still got some way to go  LOL

 

[Laurel Wreaths]

The laurel wreath has a cultural significance. The Roman imagery would seem to be associating good sex with victory and success. I get spurious emails from weirdos claiming the same today.

[What Song Are You Listening to Now?]

 

[Reassessing Varus and his defeat at Teutoburg Forest]

Firstly the imagery is hugely misleading, showing us a wide freeway through the forest that looks dry and well prepared. In reality, it was a forest trail, so nothing like as wide, and Florus tells us it was 'Fearful forest and stinking bog' - it was temperate rainforest after all, and I'm not convinced that area was so well settled. In any case, the Romans suffered an overnight storm. It caused the legions to stumble, their shields to soak and become way too heavy, and reduced morale considerably because the storm was seen as a sign of divine disapproval. Proper cavalry patrols weren't quite as practical, but then, he was operating on information supplied by Arminius. Varus thought he knew where the rebels were.

Secondly, his logic is not as objective as it might seem. There's a clear agenda to revise the narrative and some of the thinking is preconceived.

Varus was by trade a juror rather than a military man. We learn that the Germans had appeared to settle and accept the Roman presence. But more importantly, the video makes no mention whatsoever of the context for Varus' presence as military administrator - he was not a governor - there was no province to govern or advise, and Augustus knew he was a greedy man having left Syria much the poorer for his governorship there. Augustus needed cash to continue his civic bribery. He sent Varus to collect it. And there perhaps we have a much more realistic reason for the success of Arminius in getting the tribes to cooperate and ambush the Roman legions.